Kepler\'s Second Law states that a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out
ID: 362 • Letter: K
Question
Kepler's Second Law states that a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal amounts of area in equal intervals of time.
Imagine the situation shown in Figure 1 in which a planet is moving in a perfectly circular orbit around its companion star. Note that the time between each position shown is exactly one month. You can predict that the planet in Figure 1 obeys Kepler's Second Law because the planet is in perfectly circular orbit and the distances between the lettered positions appear to be the same, therefore the areas swept out by the planet between each of the lettered positions are also the same
Kepler's Second Law states that a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal amounts of area in equal intervals of time. Imagine the situation shown in Figure 1 in which a planet is moving in a perfectly circular orbit around its companion star. Note that the time between each position shown is exactly one month. You can predict that the planet in Figure 1 obeys Kepler's Second Law because the planet is in perfectly circular orbit and the distances between the lettered positions appear to be the same, therefore the areas swept out by the planet between each of the lettered positions are also the same-one month. Because the planet is moving the same distance in the same time frame, you can also predict that the planet is traveling at the same speed the entire time. In Figure 2, a planet that obeys Kepler's Second Law is shown at nine different locations (A-I) during the planet's orbit around its companion star. Print or sketch Figure 2, and draw two lines: one connecting the planet at Position A to the star, and one connecting the planet at Position B to the star. Shade in the area swept out by the planet when traveling from Positions A to B. Which of the following planet positions would have a similar swept-out area as the area you shaded as the planet travels from Positions A to B (estimate the area-you do not need to calculate the exact area)? Positions A to C Positions B to C Positions C to H Positions C to D How does the time it takes the planet to travel from Positions A to B compare to the time it takes the planet to travel from Positions D to I? The time to travel from Positions A to B is greater than the time to travel from Positions D to I. The time to travel from Positions A to B is about equal to the time to travel from Positions D to I. The time to travel from Positions A to B is less than the time to travel from Positions D to I.Explanation / Answer
1)
b. Positions B to C
2)
b. The time to travel from Positions A to B is about equal to the time to travel from Positions D to I.
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